{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,2]],"date-time":"2026-01-02T07:42:43Z","timestamp":1767339763712,"version":"3.41.0"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,31]],"date-time":"2018-07-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1532995200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.acm.org\/publications\/policies\/copyright_policy#Background"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["dl.acm.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["ACM Trans. Comput. Logic"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,31]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Computational psychology has the aim to explain human cognition by computational models of cognitive processes. The cognitive architecture Adaptive Control of Thought--Rational (ACT-R) is popular to develop such models. Although ACT-R has a well-defined psychological theory and has been used to explain many cognitive processes, there are two problems that make it hard to reason formally about its cognitive models: First, ACT-R lacks a computational formalization of its underlying production rule system, and, second, there are many different implementations and extensions of ACT-R with many technical artifacts complicating formal reasoning even more.<\/jats:p>\n          <jats:p>\n            This article describes a formal operational semantics\u2014the\n            <jats:italic>very abstract semantics<\/jats:italic>\n            \u2014that abstracts from as many technical details as possible, keeping it open to extensions and different implementations of the ACT-R theory. In a second step, this semantics is refined to define some of its abstract features that are found in many implementations of ACT-R\u2014called the\n            <jats:italic>abstract semantics<\/jats:italic>\n            . It concentrates on the procedural core of ACT-R and is suitable for analysis of the general transition system, since it still abstracts from details like timing, the sub-symbolic layer of ACT-R or conflict resolution.\n          <\/jats:p>\n          <jats:p>Furthermore, a translation of ACT-R models to the declarative programming language Constraint Handling Rules (CHR) is defined. This makes the abstract semantics an executable specification of ACT-R. CHR has been used successfully to embed other rule-based formalisms like graph transformation systems or functional programming. There are many theoretical results and practical tools that support formal reasoning about and analysis of CHR programs. The translation of ACT-R models to CHR is proven sound and complete w.r.t. the abstract operational semantics of ACT-R. This paves the way to analysis of ACT-R models through CHR analysis results and tools. Therefore, to the best of our knowledge, our abstract semantics is the first abstract formulation of ACT-R suitable for both analysis and execution.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1145\/3218818","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,9,13]],"date-time":"2018-09-13T12:07:33Z","timestamp":1536840453000},"page":"1-42","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["An Operational Semantics for the Cognitive Architecture ACT-R and Its Translation to Constraint Handling Rules"],"prefix":"10.1145","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Daniel","family":"Gall","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Ulm University, James-Franck-Ring, Ulm"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Thom","family":"Fr\u00fchwirth","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ulm University, James-Franck-Ring, Ulm"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"320","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,9,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_1_1_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5555\/647485.726326"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_2_1","first-page":"27","article-title":"Towards formally founded ACT-R simulation and analysis","volume":"15","author":"Albrecht Rebecca","year":"2014","unstructured":"Rebecca Albrecht , Michael Gie\u00dfwein , and Bernd Westphal . 2014 . Towards formally founded ACT-R simulation and analysis . Cogn. Processi. 15, Suppl. 1 (2014), 27 -- 28 . Rebecca Albrecht, Michael Gie\u00dfwein, and Bernd Westphal. 2014. Towards formally founded ACT-R simulation and analysis. Cogn. Processi. 15, Suppl. 1 (2014), 27--28.","journal-title":"Cogn. Processi."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_3_1","first-page":"79","article-title":"F-ACT-R: Defining the ACT-R architectural space","volume":"15","author":"Albrecht Rebecca","year":"2014","unstructured":"Rebecca Albrecht and Bernd Westphal . 2014 . F-ACT-R: Defining the ACT-R architectural space . Cogn. Process. 15, Suppl. 1, (2014), 79 -- 81 . Rebecca Albrecht and Bernd Westphal. 2014. F-ACT-R: Defining the ACT-R architectural space. Cogn. Process. 15, Suppl. 1, (2014), 79--81.","journal-title":"Cogn. Process."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"John R. Anderson. 2007. How Can the Human Mind Occur in the Physical Universe? Oxford University Press.  John R. Anderson. 2007. 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Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_9_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1006\/ijhc.2001.0469"},{"volume-title":"Proceedings of the 24th International Symposium Logic-Based Program Synthesis and Transformation (LOPSTR\u201914)","author":"Christiansen Henning","key":"e_1_2_1_10_1","unstructured":"Henning Christiansen and Maja H. Kirkeby . 2015. Confluence modulo equivalence in Constraint Handling Rules . In Proceedings of the 24th International Symposium Logic-Based Program Synthesis and Transformation (LOPSTR\u201914) ), Maurizio Proietti and Hirohisa Seki (Eds.). Springer International Publishing, 41--58. Henning Christiansen and Maja H. Kirkeby. 2015. Confluence modulo equivalence in Constraint Handling Rules. In Proceedings of the 24th International Symposium Logic-Based Program Synthesis and Transformation (LOPSTR\u201914)), Maurizio Proietti and Hirohisa Seki (Eds.). 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Mehlhorn (Eds.). 61--66","author":"Gall Daniel","year":"2015","unstructured":"Daniel Gall and Thom Fr\u00fchwirth . 2015 . An adaptable implementation of ACT-R with refraction in Constraint Handling Rules . In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Cognitive Modeling, N. A. Taatgen, M. K. van Vugt, J. P. Borst, and K. Mehlhorn (Eds.). 61--66 . Daniel Gall and Thom Fr\u00fchwirth. 2015. An adaptable implementation of ACT-R with refraction in Constraint Handling Rules. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Cognitive Modeling, N. A. Taatgen, M. K. van Vugt, J. P. Borst, and K. Mehlhorn (Eds.). 61--66."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_18_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/2790449.2790517"},{"volume-title":"Rule Technologies. Research, Tools, and Applications (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)","author":"Gall Daniel","key":"e_1_2_1_19_1","unstructured":"Daniel Gall and Thom Fr\u00fchwirth . 2016. Translation of cognitive models from ACT-R to Constraint Handling Rules . In Rule Technologies. Research, Tools, and Applications (Lecture Notes in Computer Science) , Jose Julio Alferes, Leopoldo Bertossi, Guido Governatori, Paul Fodor, and Dumitru Roman (Eds.), Vol. 9718 . Springer International Publishing , Cham , 223--237. Daniel Gall and Thom Fr\u00fchwirth. 2016. Translation of cognitive models from ACT-R to Constraint Handling Rules. In Rule Technologies. Research, Tools, and Applications (Lecture Notes in Computer Science), Jose Julio Alferes, Leopoldo Bertossi, Guido Governatori, Paul Fodor, and Dumitru Roman (Eds.), Vol. 9718. 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Harrison. 2008. jACT-R : Making cognitive modeling portable. Retrieved from http:\/\/jactr.org\/.  A. M. Harrison. 2008. jACT-R : Making cognitive modeling portable. Retrieved from http:\/\/jactr.org\/."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_23_1","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming.","author":"Martin Julien","year":"2007","unstructured":"Julien Martin and Francois Fages . 2007 . From business rules to constraint programs in warehouse management systems . In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming. Julien Martin and Francois Fages. 2007. From business rules to constraint programs in warehouse management systems. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming."},{"volume-title":"Graph Transformation Systems in CHR","author":"Raiser Frank","key":"e_1_2_1_24_1","unstructured":"Frank Raiser . 2007. 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Introduction to computational cognitive modeling . In The Cambridge Handbook of Computational Psychology, Ron Sun (Ed.). Cambridge University Press , New York, 3--19. Ron Sun. 2008. Introduction to computational cognitive modeling. In The Cambridge Handbook of Computational Psychology, Ron Sun (Ed.). Cambridge University Press, New York, 3--19."},{"key":"e_1_2_1_33_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0010-0277(02)00176-2"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_34_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Niels A. Taatgen C. Lebiere and J. R. Anderson. 2006. Modeling paradigms in ACT-R. In Cognition and Multi-Agent Interaction: From Cognitive Modeling to Social Simulation. Cambridge University Press 29--52.  Niels A. Taatgen C. Lebiere and J. R. Anderson. 2006. Modeling paradigms in ACT-R. In Cognition and Multi-Agent Interaction: From Cognitive Modeling to Social Simulation. 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